‘Performing the Image’ consists of six screening programmes that explore artists’ performative interventions and gender-related investigations. Spotlighting two significant areas of the M+ Moving Image Collection, the works in the programme illustrate how activism and moving image practice are intrinsically connected, and how the medium has developed alongside and in response to larger societal issues.

Going beyond mere documentation and often employing the medium in a self-reflective manner, the works comment ingeniously on female agency, man-made sociopolitical systems, and urban buildings. Iconic moving image artists such as Nam June Paik, Martha Rosler, and Tracey Moffatt are placed in dialogue with contemporary filmmakers such as Shen Xin, Simon Liu, and Wong Ping to take viewers on an energizing journey through the history of international video art.